Trick or Treats
by Ryaninthesky
Summary: A collection of short fics I wrote for Halloween, based on prompts from (and previously posted on) tumblr. Crossposted here to keep my story archive complete.
1. Crispy

Trick or treat? - crispy

* * *

"Regina, c'mon, just give it to me!"

"Not until you say the magic word."

"Please?"

"Please what, Miss Swan?" Regina smirked, enjoying the increasingly anxious look on the blonde's face.

"Please, oh great, wicked Evil Queen, may I have a taste of your forbidden fruit?"

Regina rolled her eyes. Some people could be so melodramatic. "It's hardly a fruit, dear." Still, she held a plate out to her lover. Beaming with joy - really, who above the age of ten reacted like that to food? - Emma munched happily on the candy corn Rice Krispies treat, spilling crumbs all over herself.

"Honestly, Henry has better table manners."

Emma smiled. "Maybe. But you love me anyway."

Regina sighed, but couldn't refute the statement. She did love Emma, despite - and perhaps, sometimes, in her more sentimental moments, because of - her lack of manners, terrible taste in jackets, and the rattling deathtrap of a car she refused to get rid of. So she did the only thing any sane, rational, ex-fairy-tale queen could do. She grabbed her lover and kissed her slowly, softly, savoring the sticky sweetness of her lips.

"Go put on your costume, you idiot. Henry will be home soon."

"Hmm." Emma nodded and snatched another treat, heading up the stairs. She paused a moment, then jumped back down to press a quick kiss to Regina's cheek.

"I love you, too."


	2. Altar

Trick or Treat. Hmmmmm I dunno… altar

* * *

"This…is really creepy."

It was eerily silent in for a Halloween night; no children passed by with cries of "Trick or Treat!" Emma would have taken the occasional drunken reveler, anything to restore some kind of normality. Even her boots made no sound on the carpeted floor. The room was dark, but enough moonlight streamed in through the window to cast a pallid glow on the walls. Just enough to let Emma see things she never thought existed outside of a horror movie.

Photos of her, of Regina, of them together plastered the walls. Some pictures even contained Henry, although most were candid shots of the two women. The photographer had clearly been following them for some time. Envelopes, letters, even a few of the doodles that Regina indulged in during meetings were taped messily in the few blank spaces. Somewhere in the house, the air conditioner turned on, causing the papers to rub against each other, shifting roughly like scales.

Emma turned. Next to her Henry hopped from foot to foot, grasping his camera and awaiting her opinion of his attempt to document their first year as an official family.

"We've gotta get you a different hobby, kid."


	3. Metal

Trick: metal.

* * *

Emma fell to one knee in the dirt. It was completely the wrong time, the wrong way; everything wrong. She didn't even have a ring, but she reached around and unclasped the necklace from around her neck, holding the metal swan pendant lightly in her shaking fingers. They'd never done anything the right way, after all.

"I love you, Regina." Her voice came out in a whisper, and she wet her lips with her tongue, trying to find something stronger. "When we fought, the first time…do you remember? It was all I could do not to press you up against that damn tree and take you right there." She laughed. "You probably would have had me hung from it if I'd tried. Even then, we matched. You, me, Henry; we were always a family, no matter how messed up. And I know what you're thinking; you don't have to say it. I should shut up now while I'm behind, right? The most important speech of my life, and I'm screwing it up." She passed a hand over her neck, rubbing. "So, I'll just get to it. Regina, will you marry me?"

Emma raised the necklace, brushing back strands of dark hair to clasp it around Regina's neck, arraigning it to center on the woman's unmoving chest. She pressed a kiss to deep red lips, pausing a moment despite herself, but there was no answering tremble, no life-bringing pulse of magic. Some fairy tales don't have happy endings.

Emma rocked back on her heels and up, not bothering to brush the dirt off her jeans. She was already covered in blood - some her own, most not. There was no point in it. Tears streaked down her face and she wiped at them absently, painting death on her face in streaks of red and brown. Letting the lid of the coffin fall closed - plain wood; there hadn't been time for anything else - Emma picked up her father's sword and headed back to Storybrooke.

Rumpelstiltskin had wanted a monster, and now it was time to pay the price.


	4. Rose

Trick or treat - Rose :D

* * *

Regina is wholly unprepared when her lover turns up at her doorstep on Halloween with a large bouquet of black and orange roses.

In fact, for a moment she can't even see the blonde at all. She's still not sure whether to just close the door in Emma's face or make a quip about the size of the Sheriff's salary when Henry runs up.

"Cool, Emma!"

Emma clearly takes that as a sign that she's welcome and pushes her way inside, her usual smile skewed beneath skeleton make-up.

"Yeah, well, you'd be surprised how generous the florist can be when you threaten to put him in jail for kidnapping. I still don't know why you wouldn't let me book the ba-" Regina raises an eyebrow and glances towards Henry. "-ad guy."

Regina gingerly takes the roses - do dyed flowers even need water any more? She arranges them in a vase anyway. "You know no one wanted to press charges, dear." It's kind of cute how so many people, Emma included, try to go on as if everything hasn't changed.

Emma and Henry are discussing tactical Halloween plans that seem to have something to do with a candy to house ratio, and Regina takes this to mean that none of them are going to get any sleep that night. Although…her cheeks pink as she considers the more adult possibilities of a sugar high.

However, mothers have superpowers of her own, and right now Regina's spidey-senses are tingling as she notices that Emma hasn't taken her hands out of her pockets since she handed the flowers over. Gently, she grasps the blonde's wrist, and Emma allows a hand to be drawn out with a sheepish look on her face. Her fingers are covered with tiny cuts, and Regina suddenly realizes that there were no thorns on the rose stems.

"I didn't want you to get hurt."

Regina blinks away the tears that rise, unbidden, to the corners of her eyes, and peppers the bruised flesh with light kisses as she sends Henry for the first aid kit.


	5. Pumpkins

Trick or Treat! Pumpkins!

* * *

"This is ridiculous, Ms. Swan."

"Lighten up, Regina. Lying to children is an integral part of effective parenting. What about Santa Claus?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were suddenly an expert at child-rearing? Because the ten years I've spent raising the son you put up for adoption -" Her voice is silenced by a whispered "Shh!" from that very same son.

Emma runs her hand over her face. She'd really meant for this to be a happy family outing, not a fight with Regina. Well, insomuch as they were ever a happy family. There'd been some sex had, yes; awesome, amazing, walking-funny, dazed-look-on-your-face-for-days-afterward sex. Apparently the mayor, however, felt that their time together didn't need to bleed over into the daylight hours. At first Emma had been fine with that. A little hate!sex to get the week going? Well, prospects were dim enough in Storybrooke. But that had been before she'd started daydreaming about what it would be like to wake up next to Regina in the morning. What they would have for breakfast. What kind of cereals Henry liked. What it would be like to have a home, and a family.

Regina shivered next to her and Emma automatically shrugged off her jacket, offering it to the other woman. Regina looked at it with some suspicion, but slipped it on anyway and curling herself into Emma's shoulder. She didn't say anything, just smiled at Henry, who was huddled underneath a blue blanket and craning his neck in an attempt to look in all directions at once.

Well, they still weren't seeing each other much during the day, but when Henry had come up with this crazy idea, Emma had been determined to make it as much of a family memory as she could.

Which is why she is now sitting in the middle of a chilly pumpkin patch, at midnight, waiting for the Great Pumpkin.


End file.
